Roll-up coverings for architectural openings and related methods, systems and devices
The present disclosure describes roll-up coverings of custom length and/or width for architectural openings, and a method of assembling the same. The custom covering includes at least one outer elongate tape, at least one inner elongate tape, and a plurality of slats. The tapes preferably have lengths along central longitudinal axis extending between first ends and second ends of the tapes that are selected to correspond to the custom length of the covering. The slats are preferably transverse to, spaced apart along, and coupled to the tapes at any desired location along the tape lengths to achieve desired spacings of the slats, thereby providing a subassembly of custom length. The slats may have lengths extending between first ends and second ends of the slats, orthogonal to the central axis of the tapes, and selected to provide a custom width of the subassembly.
1. A covering having a custom covering length and a custom covering width for an architectural opening, said covering comprising:
an outer support element having a first end, a second end opposite said first end, and a length extending between said first end and said second end of said outer support element that is selected to correspond to the custom covering length;
an inner support element disposed proximate to said outer support element, said inner support element having a first end, a second end opposite said first end, and a length extending between said first end and said second end of said inner support element that is selected to correspond to the custom covering length;
a plurality of horizontally-extending flexible slats, each horizontally-extending flexible slat having an inner longitudinal edge and an outer longitudinal edge defining a length of each flexible slat corresponding to the custom covering width, each of said plurality of horizontally-extending flexible slats extending length wise between and orthogonal to the respective lengths of said outer and inner support elements, coupled to said outer support element and said inner support element, and moveable by relative movement of at least one of the outer support element and the inner support element; and
a bottom-most, horizontal feature comprising at least one of a group consisting of a bottom rail, a bottom weight, a weighted bar, and combinations thereof, wherein the bottom-most, horizontal feature extends horizontally the same length as the plurality of horizontally-extending flexible slats, is of different construction than the plurality of horizontally-extending flexible slats, is coupled at the second respective end of at least one of the outer support element and the inner support element to be the bottom-most, horizontal feature of the covering when the covering is in an expanded configuration, and is configured to place weight on at least one of the outer support element and the inner support element,
wherein:
said outer support element, said inner support element, and said plurality of horizontally-extending flexible slats define a roll-up subassembly panel configured to be rolled up;
all adjacent horizontally-extending flexible slats are spaced at a desired custom, uniform, fixed distance along the length of the outer and inner support elements;
the bottom-most, horizontal feature is spaced from an adjacent bottom horizontally-extending flexible slat along at least one of the outer support element and the inner support element by the same custom, uniform, fixed distance that adjacent horizontally-extending flexible slats are spaced; and
said roll-up subassembly panel and said bottom-most, horizontal feature provides a custom subassembly having a custom subassembly length corresponding to the custom covering length and a custom subassembly width corresponding to the custom covering width.
2. The covering as in claim 1 , wherein each of the plurality of horizontally-extending flexible slats are adhesively attached directly to the outer support element and adhesively attached directly to the inner support element.
3. The covering as in claim 1 , wherein the roll-up subassembly panel is further configured to be biased to a closed position where the plurality of horizontally-extending flexible slats are substantially parallel to the outer support element and the inner support element.
4. The covering as in claim 1 , wherein each of said plurality of horizontally-extending flexible slats has an upper face and a lower face and the upper face of each of said plurality of horizontally-extending flexible slats is adhesively coupled to one of said outer support element and said inner support element and the lower face of each of said plurality of horizontally-extending flexible slats is adhesively coupled to the other one of said outer support element and said inner support element.
5. The covering as in claim 1 , wherein the desired custom, uniform, same, fixed spacing between adjacent horizontally-extending flexible slats is the length of one of the inner support elements and the outer support element divided by a number of the plurality of horizontally-extending flexible slats.
6. The covering as in claim 1 , further comprising a roller having a central rotational axis and configured to be rotatable, wherein,
said first end of said outer support element and said first end of said inner support element are coupled to said roller so that rolling of said roller about the central rotational axis thereof rolls said roll-up subassembly panel about said roller; and
the length of the inner support element between the roller and an upper most horizontally-extending flexible slat is longer than the length of the outer support element between the roller and the upper most horizontally-extending flexible slat.
7. The covering as in claim 6 , wherein:
said roller further comprises a main body and a pivotable door;
one of said outer support element and said inner support element is coupled to said roller via said pivotable door;
said roll-up subassembly panel is unrollable into a closed configuration and further unrollable into the expanded configuration thereby increasing the space between said outer support element from said inner support element and causing said plurality of horizontally-extending flexible slats to change orientation from being parallel to the inner support element to being transverse to the inner support element; and
in said expanded configuration, said pivotable door is pivoted open so that an end of the pivotable door extends away from the main body of the roller thereby increasing the space between the outer support element and the inner support element.
8. The covering as in claim 1 , wherein the outer support element comprises a first outer elongate tape and a second outer elongate tape laterally separated from said first outer elongate tape, wherein said first outer elongate tape and said second outer elongate tape are both adhesively coupled at separate locations along the outer longitudinal edges of the plurality of horizontally-extending flexible slats and wherein the inner support element comprises a first inner elongate tape and a second inner elongate tape laterally separated from said first inner elongate tape wherein the first inner elongate tape and the second inner elongate tape are both adhesively coupled at separate locations along the inner longitudinal edges of the plurality of horizontally-extending flexible slats.
9. The covering as in claim 8 , wherein at least one of the first outer elongate tape and the first inner elongate tape are laterally separated from at least the respective second outer elongate tape or the respective second inner elongate tape by a distance greater than eight inches.
10. The covering as in claim 8 , further comprising:
a third outer elongate tape adhesively coupled along the outer longitudinal edges of said plurality of horizontally-extending flexible slats, said third outer elongate tape having a first end, a second end opposite said first end, and a length extending between said first end and said second end of said third outer elongate tape; and
a third inner elongate tape adhesively coupled along the inner longitudinal edges of said plurality of horizontally-extending flexible slats, said third inner elongate tape having a first end, a second end opposite said first end, and a length extending between said first end and said second end of said third inner elongate tape,
wherein said third inner elongate tape is located between and spaced apart from the first and second inner elongate tapes, and said third outer elongate tape is located between and spaced apart from the first and second outer elongate tapes.
11. The covering as in claim 10 , wherein at least one of said third inner elongate tape and the third outer elongate tape has a width different from the width of the other respective inner elongate tapes or other respective outer elongate tapes.
12. The covering as in claim 8 , wherein the first outer elongate tape is opaque and has a lateral width orthogonal to the length of the first outer elongate tape and the first inner elongate tape is opaque and has a lateral width orthogonal to the length of the first inner elongate tape, and further wherein the length of the plurality of horizontally-extending flexible slats is longer than said lateral widths of the greater one of said first outer elongate tape and said first inner elongate tape.
13. The covering of claim 8 , further comprising at least one of a group consisting of: a number of outer elongate tapes being different than a number of inner elongate tapes; one of a number of outer elongate tapes being different in width than the others of the outer elongate tapes; one of a number of inner elongate tapes being different in width than the others of the inner elongate tapes; one or more of the outer elongate tapes being out of alignment with one or more of the inner elongate tapes; and combinations thereof.
14. A covering have a custom covering length and a custom covering width for an architectural opening, said covering comprising:
an outer support element having a first end, a second end opposite said first end, and a length extending between said first end and said second end of said outer support element that is selected to correspond to the custom covering length;
an inner support element disposed proximate to said outer support element, said inner support element having a first end, a second end opposite said first end, and a length extending between said first end and said second end of said inner support element that is selected to correspond to the custom covering length;
a plurality of horizontally-extending flexible slats, each horizontally-extending flexible slat having an inner longitudinal edge and an outer longitudinal edge defining a length of each horizontally-extending flexible slat corresponding to the custom covering width, each of said plurality of horizontally-extending flexible slats extending lengthwise between and orthogonal to the respective lengths of said outer and inner support elements, adhesively bonded to both said outer support element and said inner support element, and moveable by relative movement of at least one of the outer support element and the inner support element; and
a bottom-most, horizontal feature comprising at least one of a group consisting of a bottom rail, a bottom weight, a weighted bar, and combinations thereof, wherein the bottom-most, horizontal feature extends horizontally the same length as the plurality of horizontally-extending flexible slats, is of different construction than the plurality of horizontally-extending flexible slats, is coupled at the second respective end of at least one of the outer support element and the inner support element to be the bottom-most, horizontal feature of the covering when the covering is in an expanded configuration, and is configured to place weight on at least one of the outer support element and the inner support element,
wherein:
said outer support element, said inner support element, and said plurality of horizontally-extending flexible slats define a fabric subassembly panel configured to be rolled up;
all adjacent horizontally-extending flexible slats are spaced at a desired custom, uniform, fixed distance along the length of each of the outer and inner support elements;
the bottom-most, horizontal feature is spaced from an adjacent bottom horizontally-extending flexible slat along at least one of the outer support element and the inner support element by the same custom, uniform, fixed distance that the adjacent horizontally-extending flexible slats are spaced; and
said fabric subassembly panel and said bottom-most, horizontal feature provides a custom subassembly having a custom subassembly length corresponding to the custom covering length and a custom subassembly width corresponding to the custom covering width.
15. The covering as in claim 14 , wherein the fabric subassembly panel is further configured to be biased to a closed position where the plurality of horizontally-extending flexible slats are substantially parallel to the outer and inner support elements.
16. The covering as in claim 14 , further comprising a roller having a central rotational axis and configured to be rotatable, wherein
said first end of said outer support element and said first end of said inner support element are coupled to said roller so that rolling of said roller about the central rotational axis thereof rolls said fabric subassembly panel about said roller; and
the length of the inner support element between the roller and an upper most horizontally-extending flexible slat is longer than the length of the outer support element between the roller and the upper most horizontally-extending flexible slat.
17. The covering as in claim 14 , wherein an upper face of each of the plurality of horizontally-extending flexible slats are adhesively bonded to at least one of the inner and outer support elements and a lower face of each of the plurality of horizontally-extending flexible slats are adhesively bonded to at least one of the other one of the inner and outer support elements.
18. The covering as in claim 14 , wherein the desired custom, uniform, same, fixed spacing between adjacent horizontally-extending flexible slats is determined by dividing the custom covering length divided by a number of the plurality of horizontally-extending flexible slats.
19. The covering as in claim 14 , wherein each of the plurality of horizontally-extending flexible slats are adhesively bonded directly to the inner support element and adhesively bonded directly to the outer support element.
20. The covering as in claim 14 , wherein the outer support element comprises:
at least a first opaque outer elongate tape and a second opaque outer elongate tape both laterally separated and adhesively attached at separate locations along the outer longitudinal edges of the plurality of horizontally-extending flexible slats; and
at least a first opaque inner elongate tape and a second opaque inner elongate tape both laterally separated and adhesively attached at separate locations along the inner longitudinal edges of the plurality of horizontally-extending flexible slats.
21. The covering as in claim 20 , wherein at least one of the first inner elongate tape and the first outer elongate tape are spaced apart from the second inner elongate tape or the second outer elongate tape by a distance greater than eight inches.
22. The covering as in claim 20 , further comprising:
a third outer elongate tape adhesively bonded along the outer longitudinal edges of said plurality of horizontally-extending flexible slats, said third outer elongate tape having a first end, a second end opposite said first end, and a length extending between said first end and said second end of said third outer elongate tape; and
a third inner elongate tape adhesively bonded along the inner longitudinal edges of said plurality of horizontally-extending flexible slats, said second inner elongate tape having a first end, a second end opposite said first end, and a length extending between said first end and said second end of said third inner elongate tape,
wherein said third inner elongate tape is located between and spaced apart from the first and second inner elongate tapes, and said third outer elongate tape is located between and spaced apart from the first and second outer elongate tapes.
23. The covering as in claim 22 , wherein at least one of said third inner elongate tape and third outer elongate tape has a width different from the width of the other respective inner elongate tapes or the other respective outer elongate tapes.